The Dove & The Raven: Part I
by RavenDove
Summary: The Dove casts no Shadow, and The Raven casts no Reflection, yet they look like the same woman. When they turn up in Metropolis it could be more than Superman can handle.
1. A World I Know, and Don't

I am well aware that self inserts can be very cliché, and annoying to some. I've tried to take a few bits of Skysaber's advice in writing this one. Namely; Import your own villain, establish your limits, and throw in a few nonstandards into the equation. Just so your insert is not always ahead of the game. It's more interesting that way.

Lyda Mae (RavenDove) Huff

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The Dove & The Raven: Part I

by Lyda Mae (RavenDove) Huff

Chapter One: A World I Know, and Don't.

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_I come from a world where all true heroes are mortal. _

_A place where people have done such terrible things we could use a Superman, but all we have are are ordinary men and women, who die to save their brothers each day, and go unmourned by all but the few who knew them in person. _

_Not the masses I see in the pictures on the wall in front of me. It is a shrine to a man that came back from the dead, but I don't mean Jesus. _

_He is not real, this place the creation of writers and day dreamers, and yet here I stand. I'm in a dream or a nightmare. _"I must be living a Sue." _I said to myself. How I got here I do not know. How I will leave is just as much a mystery, but there is only one person here that I know of who might help me._

_I feel dizzy as I walk to the reception desk. All I can do is hope that the lady there won't consider me a crackpot._

"May I help you Ms.?" _the receptionist asked in a polite voice_.

"I'm looking for either Clark Kent or Lois Lane." _I say with as much strength as I can muster_.

"Do you have an appointment?"

"No, but what I have to say to them just might be a matter of life and death." _I try not to sound too agitated as I say this._

"Who's life are you referring too?"

"Superman's." _I can tell she doesn't believe me._ "I know what caused yesterday's black out, and some how I doubt that anyone but Superman would believe me."

"Would you care to give me a try?" _The lady sounds like she is trying to humor a mental patient, which sadly isn't far from the truth._

"Would you believe me if I said it was a trans-dimensional crossover gateway." _The vertigo is getting worse, the longer I stand here._

_"_That doesn't sound so far fetched."

_I turn around to see a man behind me. He is wearing glasses and a very nice gray suit with a blueish green tie. It is not hard to see that he is who I'm looking for. He's just got his hair arranged in a more business like manner than in the photos on the wall. I know it was he that spoke, and I want to respond, but it sticks in my throat. I don't know how much he heard, or how long he's been standing there._

"I've seen some pretty strange things in this city, Ms..."

"Huff." I_ manage to say._ "My name is Lyda Huff, and I would rather not say more here in the front lobby."

"Why is that?" _He asked me very softly._

"Because There are some things that you, and Ms. Lane would not like said in public."_ I sigh, as I try to ground myself from the dizziness. _"Things that Superman has told you off the record, which he would really rather stay that way."

"How are you so sure that I'm in such confidence with Superman" _Kent asked._

"Because I was eavesdropping." _I said as I grabbed hold of the counter._

_He looked at me with a little confusion for a moment, but he knows that he will only find out what I mean is by talking with me. _"You don't look well Ms. Huff." _He said as he offered me his hand._

"I'm not well." _I admitted._ "I may not have much more time to talk with you, so you can either lead me somewhere out of earshot, our lend me cab fare to the nearest free clinic."

_He helped me to the front door._ "We can talk in my car while I help you to get to that clinic myself."

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_Once we were safely on the road I spoke in a very hushed tone. _"I know that you're Superman Mr. Kent, and the reason I know it was a dimensional crossover gateway that caused the blackout is because I came through it."

"Is that why you're ill as well?" _ He asked._

_I tried very hard to keep my eyes closed as the motion of the car was making me nauseous. _"I don't know how I got into the gateway. I remember taking a fall over a baby gate, and the next thing I'm looking at myself on a roof top as a power substation is blowing up."

"What do you mean looking at yourself?" _He asked with concern._

"I was laying on the roof top and I saw myself standing over me."_ It was becoming hard to breath._ "It was like I was looking as a shadow of myself, then she jumped onto a fire escape and was gone."

"How is it you know so much about me? And why do you think this is a matter of life and death?"

"In the world I come from there are no superheroes. Just stories about them. I've always like stories about you." _I pause to take in a deep breath. "_ As for the danger, it's hard to explain. I've always had a dark half inside me. A part that I've struggle to keep in control for my whole life. It's not in my head any more, and that part of me would love to hurt you and everything else that I would dare to feel love for."

_Kent looked over at me with interest. _"You think this thing you saw was that dark half."

"It would make sense." _I said._ "At least as much sense as me riding in a car with a comic book character, and she would know everything that I know."

"That is a point." _he seemed to be thinking things over._ "I know a doctor that might be more useful in helping than any at a free clinic."

_I try to take a deep breath. _"If you're thinking Emile Hamilton, then I'd rather not."

_ He looked a little insulted at the comment. _"What's wrong with Dr. Hamilton?"

_It was hard to come up with a responds to that. _"Not all of the stories about this world follow the same path. In some Dr. Hamilton is a very good and competent man, in others he is a crackpot or in even others he is a criminal."

"What are you expecting in this version of my world from what you've seen so far?"

"Frightening eccentric,"_ I said,_ "in the versions were Doomsday came he's too weird to inspire confidence, and though he's definitely a genius he's just a little thick in the head about some things."

"Is he the head of Star Labs?"

"In those versions where he is he's more competent,"_I said,_ "except when Star Labs is owned by Lionel Luthour at any point."

"What happens in those versions?"

"He's a Kryptonite crazed criminal."

_Kent parked the car in an abandoned lot. _"In this reality it's Emily Hamilton, not Emile and she's very good at dealing with Meta human problems."

"I'm not a Meta human," _I said, _"I'm a mental patient who must have got a bad batch of meds."

"I'm afraid not Ms. Huff," _he said,_ "because if you're just having a bad hallucination then I'm not real, and I was very real before I met you this morning."

"I suppose you plan on changing clothes and flying me to Star Labs."

"It did make more sense to take you there as Superman."

"Keep low then," _I tried not to look to unsettled by events, _"I have this vertigo problem and a wicked fear of heights."

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If this is continued at all it will be a while before I get back to it. I'm involved with too much to promise a quick conclusion.

Lyda Mae (RavenDove) Huff

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	2. What I've Become

The Plot Bunnies are bouncing on this one, so I guess you get more sooner.

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The Dove & The Raven: Part I

by Lyda Mae (RavenDove) Huff

Chapter Two: What I've Become...

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_I am pretending to sleep. _

_The voices are just outside the door of the room I've been given. The first voice belongs to Superman. The second to a dark skinned woman with silvering hair, that I've come to know as Dr. Emily Hamilton. _

_They are talking about me. It would seem they have some theories about where I came from... What I've become..._

"She is definitely something unusual." _said Dr. Hamilton_.

"Were you able to find out why she's so ill?" _Superman asked._

"Anemia, low blood sugar, dehydration." _said Hamilton._

"Was there anything else you found?"

"The really strange things are like you said," _Hamilton continued_, "she doesn't cast a shadow, and she weighs less than she should."

"I don't think she's aware of either of those facts." _Superman said_.

"She weighs less than half of what she should with her mass."

"I saw her or her other half leaving the scene of the power station failure last night." _Superman said_. "Her story of a world without superheroes is very much like the one Supergirl gave when she came to this world."

"If she has a dark half running lose out there we need to find it." _Hamilton looks worried through my half closed eyes_.

"I know we need to find her other half, she said it was likely to be dangerous."

"That's not the only reason."

"What do you mean?"

"Splitting into two people is generally not a good thing. The long term effects are an unknown, but with what I see now, I'm inclined to believe that both halves may die if they aren't returned to one body."

_I don't think they know that I heard them._

_What they said is both frightening and a relief..._

_Frightening because they don't have answers..._

_A relief because they don't think I'm a nut case..._

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I know this world and I hate it. My lighter half would retreat here when things were bad in her own. She would read books and graphic novels; watch movies and TV shows. This is only one of the worlds that Lyda loves. The others are the same, because in them good always triumphs.

I Adyl would rather tare them to pieces. The morals of her heroes make me want to choke, to vomit them back up. The world we come from is a better world. Where there is no Superman to save the day, no Dr. Bashir to cure the plague, no Professor Xavier, and no Harry Potter.

Where war mongers are Presidents, and oil companies pay terrorists so they can continue to pollute the air and water with the joke vehicles called SUVs.

A world where greed has become God.

If it wasn't for noble little do gooders like Lyda it would be perfect.

She kept me in prison in her mind. I'm a part of her, and that is the most insulting rub of all.

Now that I'm free, I'll make sure she can't imprison me again.

I know that she would go to that do gooder in tights.

I'll go to his worst enemy. Though Lex Luthour is a little harder to access than Clark Kent, but I think he'll be interested in what I know.

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	3. Vital

I know it's just been the longest time since I've posted anything. I'm in a new apartment now and am just having the hardest time finding my muse after so long. I want to post more and finish all the projects I've started. It's just going to take some time to find my grove again.

This has been sitting in memory on my computer for the last year. I've just added a bit to it. Hopefully it helps me get started again.

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The Dove & The Raven: Part I

by Lyda Mae (RavenDove) Jeppesen-Huff

Chapter Three: Vital

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_Dispite Dr. Hamilton's predictions with the aide of I.V. fluids and__electorlites I grow stronger and find myself growing restless in this private room they have me in. When they bring me a meal tray it is not enough. My body is starving like when I was pregnant and could not keep down any food, only now I'm not suffering from morning sickness. The dizziness is gone and I can't stop eating._

_Dr Hamilton enters with a concerned look on her face. _"How many portions have you consumed so far?"

_I wipe my face with a napkin and try to make a large belch sound demure unsuccesfully._ "I haven't put food away like this since I was," _I pause a moment thinking,_ "well even then I had to stop when I outgrew the size of jeans I was wearing."

"I didn't expect this to be normal for you."_ Emily says with a frown._

_I look down at my tray trying not to sound stupid._ "Maybe I'm trying to regain what I lost when I split."

"That's as good a theory as I could come up with."_ she says in a motherly manor._

_I pick up a roll from one of the trays spread out in front of me and start to butter it._ "Nothing makes sense any more. The world I came from is fading like a childhood memory each moment I stay here. I start to wonder if I will ever see my daughter grow up, or if we will be kept apart forever."

"I wish I had answers for you Lyda, but somethings can only be answered by time."

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End file.
